


Movement

by almostjulie



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6319318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostjulie/pseuds/almostjulie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He swims, they sing, he ends distress, the world keeps moving. Over and again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Movement

**Author's Note:**

> I love Ed to an unreasonable degree. This is just a little character piece. Set before and during _Deep Wizardry_.

He moves, and the world moves around him; joy and sorrow, heartbreak and hope. He swims at the edges, and intervenes when called for, even if those beckoning him don’t always realize they need him. He is necessary. He is constant. But he is not loved. 

The sea is a cacophony of sound, and he travels it silently. Alone.

The wizards respect him, need him, but keep their distance, until the Calling. He swims, they sing, he ends distress, the world keeps moving. Over and again. An endless pattern stretching back to the beginning of time, as sure as the sea passing through his gills. If the pattern breaks, the world will end.

He has known humankind before. He has ended pain caused by humans, and he has ended their pain. Harpoons and mines and gaping wounds and poison seas; drowning and thirst and hunger and more mines and gaping wounds. But Nita is different.

He moves, and she moves with him, swimming at his side. He feels the sea move, almost imperceptibly, as she shudders when he speaks. Her whale form and her human mind both rebel against being so close to him: instinct deeper than thought. The sensation makes him want to sink his teeth into her flesh. The time will come for that. He is almost sorry.

He is drawn to her like the pull of the tide. 

She shudders, but still she swims beside him, surfacing only to breathe, and then matching him again, fin stroke for fin stroke. He is Ed’Rashtekaresket, the Master Shark, the Pale Slayer; he is probably known by a hundred more names by those who fear him. She gives him another. He gives her one, too. He is almost fond of her. 

In the cold and the dark and the deep, when she is ready to make her sacrifice, he takes her place. 

The pattern breaks.

The world keeps moving. 

She remembers him, and so he lives. 

***


End file.
